


A Field Guide to Werewolf Mating Behavior (grudgingly compiled by Brett Talbot but whatever)

by AvaRosier



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: F/M, M is for masturbation, also very probable heavy makeout sessions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-30
Updated: 2015-08-11
Packaged: 2018-04-12 01:15:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 3
Words: 11,297
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4459664
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AvaRosier/pseuds/AvaRosier
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Based on a prompt. Brett Talbot doesn't particularly like Liam. No, really. But he finds himself being fascinated by and impressed with what he hears about Hayden Romero. A girl who punches Liam Dunbar right back is good in his book, therefore they should be friends.</p><p>Except he finds himself wanting to do her a solid and get her hooked up with Liam Dunbar because they reek of sexual frustration and it's just pathetic. Whatever. His little sister drags him to romcom movies all the time, this shouldn't be too hard to pull off, right?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> From irememberyoufern on Tumblr: _Prompt for you based on the post you made about Brett deciding Hayden is his new best friend. how about Brett and Hayden become friends and Brett sees all the sexual tension between Hayden and Liam so he decides to try and get them together by making Liam jealous by flirting with Hayden or something like that. I just live for jealousy fics and I know they'd be all awkward puppies about their feelings._
> 
> I know I say this is gonna be two chapters. This is a lie I tell myself so I don't cry because I can't write just a drabble. This will probably end up being three chapters unless I come up with a brilliant idea to cut corners. 'Tis my curse in life.

 

Mason had texted him earlier and asked him to come over to BHHS when he had his free period, which Brett hadn’t objected to. He liked Liam’s friend—the guy was cute and he already knew about Brett and the others’ being not quite human, which was a plus. Mason had even done a nice job keeping pressure on Brett’s chimera-inflicted wound last week, too, even though it wasn’t really necessary with his rapid healing abilities.

Anyways.

Brett found Mason on the bleachers behind the school and dropped down onto the bench next to him. “Hey.”

Mason grinned over at him barely got a ‘hey’ out before he was launching into a game of twenty questions about how to identify potential chimeras, which Brett indulged. He kinda liked this…that the McCall pack found him important enough to include in whatever was going on. Not only did it get potential important information to Satomi, it also gave him a chance to spend time with others his own age that he didn’t have to hide from. They had saved his life on more than one occasion.

“Jeez, check it out.” Mason groaned, bursting the little thought bubble he’d been in and Brett followed the line of his stare to the sports field, where he easily zeroed in on Liam Dunbar looking like he’d just sucked on a lemon. Curious what had gotten Dunbar worked up, Brett followed Liam’s line of sight to…of course.

The cute brunette in the crop top. She was staring Liam down right before driving a powerful kick to a soccer ball, sending it flying straight into the net. Liam scooped up a ball with his lacrosse stick and proceeded to miss the net by practically a mile. So Dun-derhead had the hots for her, that much Brett could see, and it was affecting his performance. What didn’t, really?  

His Alpha had taken him and Lori in when their family was killed by so-called ‘rogue’ hunters. Satomi was strict, but kind and loving. And she always expected her betas to work hard to earn things in life. In retrospect, that had been why Brett had disliked Liam Dunbar so much when they’d been at Devenford. The kid had been a loose cannon from the start, and trashing the Coach’s car had been the last straw.

He’s been growing on Brett these last few months, though.

On the field, the competition between the soccer chick and Liam had escalated into victorious grins and heated glares. Frankly, Brett’s not sure what Freudian psychoanalysis would conclude about the way Liam was gripping his Lacrosse stick. Then Liam had to go and nearly take out the goalie with his shot.

“What’s up with those two?” Brett finally asked Mason, giving into his curiosity.

“Sixth grade. Not the best year for Liam’s anger management issues.” And then he was whipping out his phone and tapping on a few buttons with his thumb. “There was a…this fight in the hallways. Liam and this other guy. Hayden sort of accidentally walked into it. And _this_ is her yearbook photo.”

“Ah, damn.” Brett winced at the bruising around the obviously broken nose. It must have hurt like the devil to smile for the camera through that.

“Yeah.” He could hear the glee in Mason’s voice.

“Ow. What did she do to him?” Something told Brett that Hayden hadn’t let the punch go lightly.  Mason smirked and swiped left so a black-and-white picture of a petulant twelve year old Liam came across the screen. Brett took one look at the white bandage and dark bruises along the bridge of Liam’s nose and snickered with Mason. He couldn’t lie, he was impressed.

 _Hayden Romero, you just might be my new best friend_.

 

* * *

 

 

Hayden had no sooner sold her last tube of bright blue vodka shots than she was turning around and yelping with fright at the huge guy looming before her.

“Hey,” the giant smiled down at her. If he thought that was a charming smile, one that would put her at ease, he had another think coming.

“I’m out of drinks. You’ll have to wait until I get refills.”  _Unless I kill Phil, then you might be waiting forever_.

If anything the giant’s smile went up a few watts. “That’s alright, Hayden.”

 _Shit, how did he know her name_? Hayden glanced nervously around the crowded room, full of mostly college students gyrating wildly to the pounding bass pouring out through the speakers. The bouncers were too far away and while Zeke was nice, he was currently dancing half-naked in a cage and unable to come to her aid. And this guy probably had a good forty pounds on Zeke. So she squared her shoulders and tilted her chin up at the shirtless guy before her. “Just so you know, years of soccer plus martial arts means I pack a pretty brutal punch.”

“So I’ve seen. Mason was showing me yours and Liam’s yearbook photos from sixth grade and I couldn’t help but be impressed.” _You’ve got to be kidding me_.

Hayden couldn’t have suppressed her eye roll if her life depended on it. “I can give you a private demonstration if you’d like.” She told him archly. He only snorted with laughter.

“The name’s Brett Talbot.”

The last thing she wanted or needed was Liam Dunbar intruding into her life more than he already was, and this guy was too few degrees of separation from him. She stepped around him and breathed a little easier when he made no move to block her escape.

“I think you and I should be friends!” Brett called after her.

“I’ll think about it!” She shouted back over her shoulder. _Not_.

 

Thirty minutes later, Hayden was beaming at the clubbers around her, something she rarely ever did because she usually hated being around drunk morons. To be fair, she had tried to see about getting a job at the sole lesbian bar that Beacon Hills had, but they were too principled to hire an underage girl and pay her under the table. Hayden was pretty sure she would rather have been working there than Sinema.

 _Beggars can’t be choosers_ , she had reminded herself. _Not for_ _$200 a bottle_.

But…oh, right. She was smiling even after being on her feet, in heels, for hours. And the reason for her happiness was the huge bruise currently forming on Phil’s forehead. Hayden had seen Phil holding up a baggie full of crushed ice to his head, nose still bleeding while he yelled at the other bartender on shift, Dashiell. But it had been Brett who drew her attention, lounging near the open end of the bar.

She had taken in the look of bored innocence on his face, but by the time he had glanced over at her and winked, Hayden knew that he’d had something to do with Phil ruining his good looks. Well. Hayden had always thought people’s outsides should match their insides. She had twisted her mouth in an effort to not smile at Brett, but her head shake had probably given him hope.

Phil had been too distracted to steal from her. She’d be richer by the end of the night than she’d ever been. Hayden decided to give Brett a shot. He wasn’t in the club at closing, and she had to help clean up before she could head home. He was, however, waiting out back next to her car, slurping on the signature bright green straw that identified his Starbucks’ drink.

He waved the clear cup at her as she approached, making the ice clink and the pale brown liquid slosh around inside. “I would’ve gotten you one, but I figured you’d think I was trying to drug you or something. So…”

Well, she couldn’t argue with that. “ _So_ …the enemy of my enemy is my friend?”

“Something like that.” His eyes crinkled at the corner. Hayden paused next to the driver’s side door and pressed the button to disengage the lock. She barely hesitated before hitting the button again to unlock all four doors.

“I’ll give you a ride home, and you can give me your elevator pitch for why we should be friends.”

“Besides our affinity for giving other people broken noses?” He asked lightly.

“Besides that.”

 

By the time she locked her own door behind her and trudged through the small apartment she shared with her sister, Hayden had pretty much accepted that she had a new friend. Brett Talbot was a Junior at Devenford Prep, had a younger sister named Lori (who was in the eighth grade), and he was a sucker for iced caramel macchiatos.

He was also an orphan. When he’d asked about Hayden’s parents, she’d shut him down. “ _They’re not around_.” Mercifully, he’d dropped the subject.

“ _I’ve actually got a lot to recommend me as a friend, you know. I can braid hair and I’m bi, which means we can talk about boys if you wanted, or girls. And_ ,” Brett had looked a bit pained at that point. “ _If it were absolutely necessary, I do know most of the words to One Direction songs_.”

She had smirked over at him. “ _Lori_?”

“ _Yep._ _On repeat_.”

“ _Well, then. You’ll be glad to know that I’m more into angry feminist music_.”

“ _Ecstatic_.”

She’d tossed her phone over at him and told him to make up a new contact entry, and to add his number.

“ _I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship_.” Brett had told her through the open door after she’d pulled into the driveway for a small bungalow.

“ _Casablanca_?” Hayden had wrinkled her nose at the reference.

“ _See_!” Brett had grinned at her. “ _I knew this would work_.”

 

Hayden scrubbed off her makeup and brushed her teeth. Thankfully, she had pushed herself earlier to finish her Bio and English homework. Soccer was starting up soon, and she would have even less time, so she had to be diligent and not slack off.  Clarke didn’t have to work the graveyard shift tonight, so she would be home by two. Hayden pulled on her matching camisole and pajama pants and brushed her hair out before sliding under the covers and turning off her bedside lamp.

Sleep wouldn’t come quickly tonight, she was too buzzed after work. She knew one thing that would take the edge off and help her relax long enough to fall asleep. But, as her fingers toyed with the drawstring to her pajama pants, the problem was _who_ Hayden would find herself thinking of.  And after the last few days, she knew it would be Liam.

 _Why me?_ She castigated herself, hand resting on the warm skin of her abdomen. There were plenty of other people at school she could have started crushing on. That redhead, Beatrice, on the soccer team, who was intense and liked to whip off her sports tops in favor of playing in her bra and shorts. Chance, from her Spanish class with the deft fingers that were always toying with his pens. But she couldn’t seem to stop noticing Liam, instead. Her face heated up as she remembered how close Liam had gotten the other night at Sinema.

Brett had also explained his history with Liam to her. About the Lacrosse team there and what Liam had done to their coach’s car. “ _But he’s a lot better now; calmer, more in control. We’re not friends, exactly, but we have a few friends in common_.”

Hayden had definitely noticed that Liam’s temper was less volatile than it had been when he was twelve. _That_ was the problem. He was making it hard for her to be angry at him. No, strike that. He kept annoying her and then she found herself doubly annoyed by how quickly she wanted to recognize his contrition and accept his apologies. The money he had handed her after finding out she needed it for her Mycophenolate pills. The way he’d reached up past her to help her push the switch up—warm hands over her own and his breath making the strands of her hair dance against the back of her neck. Making her suddenly aware of the physical proximity of his body to hers.  

She wasn’t holding onto her anger and hatred towards Liam _just because_.

When she had been twelve, she was just starting to develop her first crushes. And for some godforsaken reason, she’d alighted upon Liam Dunbar—short, slightly chubby Liam Dunbar with the long, floppy hair who could be kind of sweet but quick to implode. They had always been competing with each other to be the best in their classes, each recognizing a similar quality in the other and letting it both excite and drive them.

At twelve, that punch to her face—although not meant for her—had seemed utterly _catastrophic_. Maybe it was making a mountain out of a molehill, but when those feelings were new, they were also fragile. And Hayden needed to hate Liam now so she wouldn’t fall down that rabbit hole again.

She’d liked the way he had looked at her today during their shared practices—nostrils flared and a mix of awe and frustration. It had made her want to swagger. And earlier that evening when she was getting Sinema ready for the night, when they’d been alone in one of the dark alcoves and Liam had asked her to humor him and closer her eyes for several seconds…

Hayden had been softened enough by the offer of money (and his earnest insistence he wanted to make up for punching her in the face), that she’d laughed but complied. Sure, Liam had sworn he wouldn’t do anything…but when she had closed her eyes and stood there for several seconds in anticipation, the truth was she’d been expecting a kiss.

And when that hadn’t come, and instead she’d opened her eyes to see him holding a glowstick up to her face, looking upset at whatever he’d seen, the heavy weight that had settled into her gut could only have been disappointment. Liam had made an excuse about an idea he’d had for his biology project, but something told Hayden that had been a lie, and then he’d been making his excuses to leave.

She’d been left standing there with an acute sense of rejection, and that had put her in a foul mood until Brett had helped her get one up over Phil. This was exactly why she didn’t want to have feelings for Liam Dunbar again: it only led to her own weakness and heartache.

But she'd wanted them. Here, in the darkness of her bedroom, with the glowing numbers of the digital clock taunting her at _1:07...1:08...1:09.._.Hayden decided to let go just for the night. To imagine standing back there in Sinema with Liam less than a foot away. To consider what it would've felt like when she sensed his body stepping closer, his breath soft and warm against her jaw.

She knows he's short. Shorter than her, at any rate. But he didn't seem insecure about it when he was around her. Not even when she was stalking around in heels that made her three, four inches taller than him. And there was a part of her that definitely noticed that. Boys who were secure in who they were without lashing out due to toxic masculinity definitely appealed to her...just look at her celebrity crush on Daniel Radcliffe. 

Those hands that had tightened around his Lacrosse stick...would they be callused? Hayden stroked her chin with her own and tried to imagine a broad palm in its place.  The brush of fingertips over her lips left tingles in their wake, and Hayden thought about pressing her body against Liam's own...how their parts wouldn't quite line up, but even that seemed to excite her. Most girls might fantasize about tilting their heads back to kiss boys taller than them...but Hayden had figured out years ago that she also liked girls and since she was on the tall side for a girl, plenty of her crushes had been shorter than she. It was nothing inhibitive to imagine being able to rest her forearms on Liam's shoulders, to run her fingers through his hair as he tilted his face up and kissed her.

If anything, she predicted it would feel just right.

Hayden sighed and surrendered to what her body and her mind wanted. She built up a picture in her mind of Liam, lying right here with her under the covers, shy but determined as he settled on top of her body. Hayden wasn't very experienced, but thanks to the internet, her very healthy imagination was backed up by details. She squirmed on top of her mattress, pressing her thighs tightly together and sighed at the low thrum of arousal. 

Even as her hand finally dipped beneath the hem of her pajama pants, Hayden rationalized that this was just a one-time indulgence. She would get this out of her system, and be over this ridiculous crush in hopefully a matter of weeks. 

She _had_ to.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I trawled websites in the hopes that the little bit of Japanese dialog wouldn't be horribly inappropriate.

Brett barreled through the front door, already half out of his school uniform. It’d been a long Friday, full of rather grueling exams, and he was very much looking forward to meeting up with Mason (and Liam) for dinner. Neither of them were yet aware that Hayden would be joining them—that would be Brett’s little surprise. He chuckled wryly to himself as he headed down the hallway towards the stairs. Lori would be at a sleepover that night and—

“Brett.” His Alpha’s voice echoed through the house. He paused with one foot on the first stair and nearly groaned to himself. His nose could now pick up the scent of matcha. He wouldn’t be heading out as soon as he had thought, after all.

Satomi sat at the delicately carved dining room table, a tray before her full of everything she needed to enjoy a cup of tea. He’s not sure how she knew to time the brewing process with his arrival, but Brett took in the patiently folded arms on the table and the inscrutable expression in her dark eyes and mustered up a smile.

“Satomi.” He sat down across from her and mirrored her position.

She didn’t come out to say what she wanted to; instead Brett was forced to slow himself down and go through the familiar motions of holding the cup of green-pigmented tea up to his lips with both hands and taking a careful sip. They did this for several minutes before Satomi looked at him over the rim of her cup and set it down, abandoning it for the time being.

 _This_ was never about the tea.

 “How do you feel your Calculus exam went? I know you were worrying about it all week.” She asked him.

“Alright. I think I managed a solid B. The bit of extra tutoring I got helped.”

“Good.” Her eyes twinkled and Brett saw the merest hint of a smile making her cheekbones more pronounced. “I also noticed you’ve made a new friend in the chimera from Alpha McCall’s pack.” The teasing lilt to her voice told Brett exactly what she was implying.

“Hayden? Sorry to disappoint, but she’s just a friend. She’s not exactly a part of Scott’s pack, though. But you’d like her—she’s got a lot of spirit.”

Satomi accepted the correction with a small nod. “And how is Hayden adjusting to her new reality?” Brett hadn’t found out until after her and Liam were rescued from the Dread Doctors’ lair. Consequently, he seemed to be the only one she was willing to be around for any length of time. Getting anything out of her about her emotions regarding what had been done to her was like pulling teeth.

“Adjusting? I don’t think she is,” Brett admitted. “I mean, she doesn’t get affected by the moon the way we do, so she automatically has more control over her shifts. But she’s been going out of her way to avoid the topic, and I get the impression from Mason that she’s been avoiding the pack.”

“It’s a relatively fresh trauma for her,” Satomi reached out and patted his arm. “Invite her for dinner sometime. Her and that young man you’re always on the phone with. Mason, I believe he’s called.” Satomi kept her tone light and even, but Brett saw right through it.

“Be careful what you wish for…he’ll probably ask you a million questions.” Mason’s curiosity was, true enough, one of his most endearing qualities. He shot his adoptive mother and Alpha a shit-eating grin.

“I always did appreciate a quick mind, you know this.” Silence permeated the space between them and Brett knew they were both remembering the same thing: their pack. The assassins brought here by Peter Hale had done more than decimate their pack; they had nearly obliterated them with a single stroke. It seemed that grief would be a familiar passenger in his  life for a long time. He could still smell the motor oil that had clung to Shani; remember her familiar cadence as she showed him how her motorcycle functioned. And Daniel…Brett had loved to go over to the professors’s house—to look at his pale blue eyes against his darker skin—those eyes had crinkled at the corners whenever he smiled. Books. Daniel’d had walls full of shelves full of books and Brett had wanted to look at them all. More places he could never go again.

Satomi began to place her empty cup back on the tray and he did the same, clearing his throat to shake away the sadness that clung to his skin.

“I’ll be sure to pass your invitation along tonight. I’m taking Hayden out to eat with Mason and Liam.”

Satomi stood, holding the tray. This time, her voice wobbled. “I am glad you have found younger pack members to hang out with, Brett-kun.”

He watched her sadly for a moment before standing up as well. But instead of heading straight for the stairs, he circled around the table and curled an arm around her shoulders, tucking his nose into the crook of her neck. “I don’t want McCall to be my Alpha. You’re my family now, Sensei. _Aishitemasu_.”

It was hard to explain to someone who had never felt it, what the connection between a beta and their alpha is like, when he’s felt it his entire life. But right now, the link between him and Satomi flickered more brilliantly, more warmly. Like liquid sloshing back and forth before it evened out and calmed with the mutual reassurance they had just given each other.

And he meant it, what he had just told Satomi. Everything he would be from now on, he owed to her.

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

Thunder boomed, rattling the framework of the Honda as Brett steered it downtown. Rain was pelting the windows, and he had turned off the radio, leaving the interior of the vehicle with the rhythmic swish of the windshield wipers. Hayden could practically feel the worried frown he kept shooting in her direction. She was staring out the window with a faraway look, but even if Brett couldn’t smell the stench of melancholy on her, he would probably see it in the way she was twisting the material of her sweater in her lap.

(Hayden still marveled that there were supernatural creatures who could actually _smell_ your emotional state. At least once a day, she found herself muttering ‘ _what the fuck_ ’ to herself.)

“If you hate sushi so much, we can always head down to that pizza place instead.” He offered. It was a lousy excuse of an icebreaker, but it got Hayden to lift her forehead away from the window and blink owlishly at him.

“What? No, I love sushi.”

“Then why the long face?”

Hayden sighed. Where to start? How about the fact that her life had turned into some kind of Twilight Zone episode in the last three weeks and she’d been let in on the Big Supernatural Secret that numerous kids at school were well aware of and…and…

“I don’t know how to put it into words,” she began. “You know I’m okay with what you are, right?”

“A werewolf.” He said the word, perhaps sensing her reluctance to. Hayden nodded, more in castigation of whatever prejudice she still held.

“Yes, a werewolf.” Saying the word made it all the more real. That hollow feeling in her gut increased. “It’s like…Liam, Mason, Scott and the others…they all knew and I didn’t. And now I’m the newest initiate. Now they’re looking at me like they’re expecting me to ‘join the pack’, whatever that means…I _know_ I’ve seen most of them shift, or whatever, but I hate that they saw _me_ shift. And on top of it all, I’m unnatural.”

Brett digested her words for a minute, focusing on the traffic at the intersection first. Hayden watched his hand manipulate the gearshift as she waited for him to find the words to respond.

“Look.  I’ve seen you and Liam—you guys get really competitive. And I know we haven’t been friends long, but based on that I’ve sussed out that you like to be the best in everything…am I right so far?”

“Yes,” she admitted, if a bit grudgingly. Brett chuckled at her.

“So, I get it. This whole thing with the Dread Doctors and chimeras…it made you feel weak. Like you’d made a mistake in the game and now you’re on the defensive because of it.”

This time, Hayden was the one who turned her head and stared at Brett. “That’s…actually pretty accurate. Creepily so.” He snorted and twisted the wheel, taking them away from the highway off-ramp and onto a fairly busy commercial street.

“Whatever. So, bestie…since we’re baring our souls here—“

“You mean, since _I’m_ baring _my_ soul here.” She interjected, shooting him a wary glare.

“Yeah, sure. What’s up with you and Dunbar?”  Well, if that wasn’t the million dollar question…

Hayden groaned and tried to return to her old position against the cold window, tried to focus on the sluicing motion of raindrops down the glass. She had admitted to Brett before that back in sixth grade, she’d had a crush on Liam.

“ _I don’t even know why I liked him_!”

“ _Neither do I_.”

Hayden straightened in the seat and squared her shoulders as they passed a Starbucks. “When he shifted…I punched him and drove off. He came after me anyways and we barely got away from the Doctors. Then he just…kept telling me they’d help me…save me.”

Her throat closed up for a moment there. Brett just waited her out. These were thoughts Hayden had been trying to avoid analyzing for the past two weeks.

“I just… _God_! It would have been so much easier if Liam was a jerk and I could stop myself from resurrecting those old feelings, you know? But he kept being so earnest and trying to make up for everything. And when we were in the school, and later on our own in that place—“ _That place_ being the Dread Doctors’ laboratory. “I was just terrified out of my mind and when he tried to take my pain away and tell me we’d be okay…I really wanted to believe him. So I did.”

She had told him that if he got her out of this, she’d forgive him for sixth grade. What she hadn’t told Liam was that in a way, she had forgiven him long ago. All that, from the start of the school year? That had been pride and an attempt to keep her walls up. But when she had been lying there, bleeding and in agony, Liam had kept trying to take her pain away even though he’d only ever seen it done by Scott.

There had been a bond, forged by earth-shattering events, and frankly, Hayden didn’t know how to deal with it now that things were somewhat back to normal.

Whatever that meant now.

Pursing her lips, she turned back to Brett’s profile. “So, what do you have to say about that, _Dr. Talbot_?” They pulled into a large parking lot shared by several stores and restaurants.

He breathed noisily through his nose and gave her a barely regretful look. “Now might be a bad time to tell you that we aren’t eating alone. We’re kind of meeting Mason and Liam there.”

Now, Hayden was quick. But Brett was quicker. He hit the lock button before she could yank on the door handle. “ _Let_. _Me_. _Out_.”

“Sorry, no. I’m claiming ‘Best Friend Knows Best’ privileges. Just pretend you’re playing wingwoman to me.”

Hayden punched the armrest and clenched her jaw. “I may not be prejudicial towards werewolves, but I am going to _murder your furry ass_ , Brett!”

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

“What the hell’s wrong with you?” Liam narrowed his eyes at his best friend, who was currently testing his breath against his hand. Mason looked like a deer caught in headlights for a fraction of a second before he recovered and shrugged, shaking his head.

“Nothing. Why?”

“You were checking for bad breath.” Liam pointed out, clearly not falling for the faux casual act. He knows Mason too well after the last couple of years to be fooled. Mason’s mouth drew downwards in a small moue.

“Realizing you’re surrounded by werewolves makes a dude self-conscious. Haven’t you noticed I dialed down on the cologne and upped my usage of simple soaps?” Well, yes, Liam _had_ noticed that, but still. Realization dawned on him.

“Ugh, you still think he’s hot!” Liam exclaimed with disgust. Mason had informed him ahead of time that Brett would be joining them. While he still wasn’t on Liam’s short-list of favorite people, and while they weren’t exactly enemies anymore, they still seemed to get on each other’s nerves if they spent too much time together.

That only got him a punch to the shoulder. Mason glanced around the restaurant nervously and whisper-shouted: “ _Keep your voice down_! What if he had been close enough to overhear? And _yes_ , I still find Brett attractive. Give me a break—crushes take a while to fade. I might as well enjoy the ride.”

Liam rolled his eyes heavenward before nodding in concession. “Yeah, fine.”

The hostess showed them to a small booth. Given that it was a Friday evening, the place was starting to get full and dozens of conversations were going on. Luckily, Liam was now able to filter them all out. He would have sat next to Mason in the booth and forced Brett to sit opposite him, but Mason all but shoved him into the other booth seat.

“Let me live,” Mason begged.

Liam held both hands up in a placating manner and grabbed the menu so he could peruse the items.

“Yikes.” The word was hissed through Mason’s clenched teeth.

Liam looked up and saw Mason staring at something behind him, so he turned to see what the hell had his best friend so captivated. It was Brett Talbot, having just entered the restaurant…

With his arm around Hayden Romero’s shoulders.

Fuck.

Fuckity fuck.

 _Shit_.

Liam could feel his face twisting into something between a frown and a sneer. It wasn’t that he had expected anything after what they’d been through. He had genuinely just wanted to get Hayden out of all of that, alive. Okay, if he were being honest, he could admit that he had feelings for her. There had always been something about Hayden that had challenged him; propelled him to want to do better.

Every disdainful look, every victorious swing of her hips. God, _the smirk_. The challenging rise to her eyebrows. And whenever she won, he’d just think about her kissing him?

Hayden had been on the outside of the whole supernatural thing…and then she’d been on the inside in the ugliest way possible. And Liam had wanted nothing more than for her to be safe and free of it all. But…trapped down in that lab, with the heavy iron scent of her blood in the air and that freaky canister with some kind of person in it…and the table where she’d been strapped down, screaming…

“Hey guys, I heard SUHS lost to Stellar. Guess that means Devenford just might make it into the championship and leave BHHS in the dust.” Brett drawled by way of greeting as he approached their table. Liam ground his teeth as he stared up at the guy. But his attention was quickly drawn away by Hayden and the nervous way she was clutching at her purse strap.

Brett dropped himself into the booth seat next to Mason, leaving Hayden to stare, horrified, at the empty seat next to Liam. She held herself gingerly as she reluctantly slid her hips onto the black leather, less than a foot away from Liam’s thighs.

“Hey Mason,” she greeted, and after a beat… “and Liam.”

Two weeks ago she had let her guard down around him long enough to fall asleep and nuzzle his shoulder. But even as Liam had the proprietary thought, he could suddenly hear his mother’s voice in his head, scolding him. The Dread Doctors had victimized her repeatedly, Liam didn’t get to pass judgment on how Hayden needed to deal with it. Mollified, he managed a friendly smile and a nod. “Hey Hayden.”

“And Brett.”

Mason’s eyes widened at the tension bouncing around the table. “Ooo-kay. Why don’t we figure out what we want to grab off the conveyor belt?” He grabbed the brightly colored menu and made a show of flipping through it, sliding it across the table so Brett could look at the selections.

Liam raised his eyebrows but did the same with his menu for Hayden. She’d used the peppermint bodywash that morning, he noted.

“The next time you guys want sushi, let me pick the place.” Brett informed them after taking a look at the dishes offered.

“Is this to sushi what Taco Bell is to Mexican food?” Hayden asked Brett with a wink and a playful twist to her lips.

Brett stared purposefully at the conveyor belt where brightly colored plates moved past them. “Well, _yeah_.”

“Ah, sorry, I didn’t think…” Mason started to apologize but Brett waved him off.

“Don’t worry about it. I’m not that much of a snob.”

Liam snorted at that, which got him an unimpressed stare from Brett. “You wanna add something, Dunbar?”

“Nope,” Liam exaggerated the popping sound of the ‘p’ and reached for the first plate that looked good.

“Beef tataki! Is there another one?” Hayden burst out excitedly from next to him. “That’s one of my favorites.”

Liam set it down in front of her. “Go ahead. There’s other plates I could go for.” She took in his casual shrug with a uncertain grin, but accepted his gift; she popped the lid off the plate and reached for the chopsticks. He heard them snap apart even as he glanced back over to the conveyor belt, scanning the choices.

“What d’ya want?” Mason asked Brett, who made a noncommittal humming noise.

“I don’t…wait, orange plate with the tuna sashimi.” Brett pointed it out.

“Wha-that one?”

“Yup.”

Liam managed to suppress a snort at how obvious his best friend was being. Grabbing a plate of what he was fairly certain was spicy tuna, he heaped on several slices of pickled ginger and dug in. The table was quiet for a few minutes as they enjoyed the beginning of their dinner. But Liam couldn’t suppress his curiosity, not since it was burning him up inside.

“So, how’d you two become friends anyways?” He blurted out before popping the last roll into his mouth.

“Sinema.” Hayden told him succinctly, scooping up some cilantro dressing with her finger and licking it off. Liam gulped and forced himself to look away…right into Brett’s knowing eyes. _Fuck_.

Brett smirked. “Actually, I saw yours and Hayden’s little goal competition a few weeks back. Mason filled me in on the whole sixth-grade broken nose incident. Showed me the yearbook pictures. The fact that Hayden punched you right back…well, we were just meant to be friends.” The look on his face clearly said ‘ _whaddya gonna do about that, fucker_?’

 Liam shot him a dirty look. Then turned to glare at his best friend, who looked only mildly  chagrined at best. “You just carry those pictures around with you wherever you go, don’t you?”

Mason shrugged. “It makes for a great story?”

Hayden’s giggle, and the way her shoulders shook as she bent over the table took the heat out of his irritation. Well. Liam could be the perfect flight attendant if he put his mind to it.

“She also broke my nose when I shifted for her. Did you tell that to Cory when he put the moves on you the other week in Sinema?”

Mason’s eyes narrowed disbelievingly and he looked like he wanted to yell at Liam.

“Wait? Who’s Cory? Isn’t that Lucas-the-scorpion’s boyfriend?”

“Yup.” Liam nodded at Brett. “Cory turned out to be a chimera, too. And he hit on Mason. Seems like my best friend is catnip for supernatural beings in Beacon Hills.”

Mason looked like he wanted to murder Liam. Liam just smiled right back. Brett wasn’t saying anything, but he was making an exaggerated effort to pick up the last piece of tuna, casually. And failing. His motions were a bit too choppy to pass muster.

A knee nudged against his own and Liam swore his heart skipped a beat as he glanced over at an incredulous Hayden, who seemed to be warning him with wide eyes. Liam decided to be nice and back down for now.

“Hey, what are you doing next Thursday?” Brett asked, near the end of their meal. A pile of colored plates littered the middle of the table and the wasabi pot was pretty much right next to Mason’s elbow.

Mason shot Liam an uncertain look. “Um…nothing, I don’t think. Why?”

Brett jerked his chin in Hayden’s direction. “Her first game is that night. If her practice was any indication, it ought to be an entertaining game.” Liam caught the wink Brett sent Hayden, and he saw her flushed cheeks in return.

Mason became animated. “Really? That’s awesome. Of course we’ll come.”

“What position do you play?” Liam asked her. They hadn’t addressed each other much that night, but what little there had been was an improvement after the past two weeks of downward cast eyes and hurried footsteps past his location.

“Second forward.” Hayden told him, swirling the ends of her chopsticks through the small curved plate of soy sauce.

“Sounds perfect for you.” He told her earnestly. She searched his eyes for traces of mockery, and then accepted the compliment.

“We’re actually playing SUHS, so that poor school isn’t going to have a great homecoming,” Hayden bragged.

Brett shrugged, obviously not caring. But Liam was caught up on the fact that Hayden had reminded him about Homecoming week. The dance was next Saturday. He didn’t have a date, yet. And…well…to be honest, there was only one girl he wanted to take.

But apparently he was too much of a wuss to even ask her.

They paid for their meals; Mason heading back to the bathroom afterwards while Brett paid for his and Hayden’s. “It was my treat, anyways.” He had explained, shooing away Hayden’s open wallet. She shrugged and headed for the door.

“Thanks, _bestie_.” Liam could detect the sarcasm in her voice and he didn’t have a clue what that was about. But he was done paying and so he followed her outside to the sidewalk that was barely covered by the awning. Rain pattered the asphalt before them and above it is the din of traffic.

“The football team will probably lose their game next Friday, so we’ll probably be celebrating the girls’ soccer win at the dance.”

Hayden might not have wanted to laugh at that, but the mixed snort and giggle only endeared her to him further. Liam was really, really glad she was still alive. She was so vibrant, so—

“You’ll probably have your pick of dates to the Homecoming dance.” He told her, stuffing his fists in his jean pockets. Where the hell were Mason and Brett?

“Yeah, they’d be so lucky.” Hayden nodded, staring down at the concrete rather than over at him. God, he was the worst at subtlety.

But there was something else more important he needed to tell her. “I’m sorry. If I, or any of us, did something to make this whole thing worse…we just—“

“I’m glad you were with me.” Hayden interrupted him rather suddenly, her declaration thrown down between them like a gauntlet. “Down in there.”

When she looked over at him, dark brown eyes meeting his own, Liam felt the depth behind that honest admission like a punch to the gut. Or the nose, rather. That hadn’t come easy for her, and so he understood the enormity of it. But then Mason and Brett were sauntering through the door, laughing about something.

 “Ready? You promised me Netflix and quality popcorn.” Brett asked Hayden with a wraggle of his eyebrows.

“I told him about this new show called ‘Orange is the New Black’, he hadn’t seen it yet.” Hayden explained for his and Mason’s benefit.

“Oh, that show’s pretty intense!” Mason shook his head, already waving goodbye to Brett and Hayden. “Tell me what you think. I’ll see you on Monday?” He aimed the last at Hayden.

“Sure. Maybe I’ll text you Sunday, though. Some of the questions on our French worksheet look tricky?”

“No problem.”

And with that, Liam was sharing a brief look with Hayden and hoping that it conveyed everything he wanted it to. She smiled at him before turning to walk away towards Brett’s car, so maybe that had been enough. Still, Liam found himself looking back right before he opened the passenger door to Mason’s Camry.

By serendipitous chance, so was Hayden.

He wasn’t sure how he’d scrounge up the guts to ask her out to the Homecoming dance next week, but it seemed like their coming together was a matter of inevitability. And Liam didn’t know whether that excited him or frightened him more.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 'write drunk and edit sober,' they say, as I laugh hysterically.

Mason loved sports.

Okay, that was a lie. He was pretty much a fair weather fan, hopping on whatever bandwagon was having its ‘moment’.  And right now, the downright murderous looks Hayden was aiming at one of the SUHS midfielders (Liam had just taught him that) was making the whole match more exciting than a high school game had a right to be.

#10 had fouled when re-taking possession of the ball but had knocked one of Beacon Hills’ players out in the process. Her victorious smirk announced to everyone that she’d done it on purpose. Hayden had helped the redhead limp off the field—the poor girl’s face scrunched up in pain—and was now promising divine retribution with her stormy scowl.

“ _Intense_.” Mason breathed. As soon as the word was out of his mouth, he could have smacked himself. He was well aware that it’d become his go-to expression and that others had noticed continued to be a source of embarrassment. Well, at least he wasn’t saying ‘awesome’ all the time. Now, _that_ would be pathetic.

“Not exactly the word I’d use.” Liam muttered from next to him, practically chewing on his thumb as he stared down at the drama unfolding on the field. Mason resisted the urge to push down on Liam’s jiggling left leg.

“Why not?”

Liam shot him a disbelieving stare.  “I’m more worried about Hayden springing claws and breaking bones.” He said in a stage-whisper. Oh, right. _Werewolves, berserkers, and chimeras, oh my_! Mason had forgotten for a fraction of a minute that his life was a supernatural sideshow now.

A snort came from Mason’s other side. “Well, you would know, wouldn’t you? _Twice_.”

Was it possible to get an erection from the precise timbre of someone’s voice practically next to your ear? Mason reminded himself to google that later. Brett Talbot had this unique ability to sneer with just the tone of his voice, and Mason was trying his damndest not to allow himself to be turned on. The last thing he wanted was Brett to pick up on his ever-present crush via sniff.

Liam bent forward so he could glare at Brett. Which only earned him a dismissive roll of the eyes as Brett huffed incredulously, nearly leaning across Mason’s lap to tease Liam in a sotto voice: “Oh come on, you didn’t seriously think roaring at Hayden wouldn’t get you a punch in the face?”

Mason buried a snort of laughter behind a cough, ignoring the betrayed pout Liam was giving him. After the comment he’d made last weekend about how attractive Mason was to other supernatural creatures, this was the _least_ Liam had coming.

Speaking of last weekend at the sushi restaurant? Mason had thought, for all of three minutes, that Brett and Hayden had started dating. But the signals Brett had sent during dinner contradicted that: especially the arm that had rested along the back of their booth seat, ever-so-slightly touching his shoulders.

 _Damn it_.

He really needed to stop fawning over Brett Talbot and the clean scent of his soap every time he leaned close to murmur something for Mason’s subpar human hearing over the din of spectators cheering the game.

“Ha, ha. Go ahead and yak it up at my expense.” The mocking laugh Liam let out right then had Mason raising his eyes heavenward. Okay, he might bitch about the soap opera his life seemed to be lately, even with the supernatural presence, but he can’t deny that it was entertaining.

The game picked up again and they all fell silent as their eyes became glued to the shifting positions of the players on the field. Darkness had just fallen and the lampposts were lit. If they were lucky, it wouldn’t rain until after the game was over. But given the flash of lightning to the west, plus the fact it was barely twenty minutes into the second half, that was looking less and less likely. There was electricity in the air, and most of that was because of Hayden.

He had noticed her walking past her other teammates on the field, whispering a plan into their ears, and straightening her spine at each nod of agreement she got. Sparing a glance over at his best friend, Mason nearly giggled at the soft, besotted look Liam had on his face. He’d reminded his best friend that if he wanted to ask Hayden out to the dance that weekend, he was running out of time. Basically, Liam had to do it tonight, thanks to an elaborate system of dares they’d had in place since they were ten years old.

The price of failure would be high, let’s just say. Death before dishonor, and all that.

Mason knew for a fact that Hayden still didn’t have a date for Homecoming. Liam had come up with excuse after excuse during the past four days at school about how he just couldn’t seem to get her alone. Which was bullshit because Mason talks to Hayden all the time. He might be gay, but he knew his best friend so well, he could understand what Liam saw in her.

Mason might have known next to nothing about soccer, but he could tell what was coming right before it happened. Hayden had passed the ball to one of the…midfielders?...who had then passed it to the center forward as she headed straight at the SUHS’ center backs. Everyone in the stands was practically on their feet, shouting at what they hoped would be an impending goal. And given that SUHS was ahead 2-1, they needed it.

A scuffle broke out as two girls fought for possession of the ball, the center-forward finally kicking it back to the BHHS left-winger. She was wide open, waiting. Mason realized with a flash, he knew her from his history class—Taylor. Taylor gleefully sent the ball high into the air, not making an attempt on goal but rather aiming it at a point above Hayden’s head.

She leaped into the air, right in front of #10, and slammed her head backwards into the blonde’s face right before she tapped the ball with her forehead, sending it right into the net. Mason’s body was vibrating as he screamed himself hoarse along with everyone else around him. “WHOO! HAYDEN!”

“That’s my girl!” Brett hollered through cupped hands.

#10 went down with a bloody nose, sputtering with shock. The best part? The contemptuous glance Hayden tossed at her over her shoulder as she walked away, towards her cheering teammates. Next to him, Liam was practically grinning into his fist, his frame shaking with excitement.

“Shit!” Brett clapped his hand on Mason’s shoulder, distracting him from the scene below for long enough that he missed #10’s reaction. A collective gasp, followed by a sudden hush, fell over the crowd and Mason whipped his head back around. #10 had rushed at Hayden and knocked her down and managed to get off two solid punches to Hayden’s face before the referee was yanking her off.

The warm weight left his shoulder, leaving behind tendrils of awareness, which Mason promptly put out of his mind as he grabbed a fistful of Liam’s shirt to keep him from rushing down the bleachers towards the field.

“Hey, hey, easy!” He said. “She’s getting up, see? You know Hayden’s not the sort to let that keep her down. She’ll be alright.” He reminded his best friend. Sure enough, Hayden had waved off concerned teammates and her coach and grabbed two… _wow_.

“Is she…stuffing tampons up her nose?” Mason breathed incredulously.

“Yup,” Liam answered.

“They _are_ awfully absorbent.” This from Brett.

It was on the tip of his tongue to say ‘intense’, but he barely refrained. “Women are so metal,” was what he actually said. Everyone clapped as Hayden returned to the game. #10 had been disqualified from the match and SUHS was forced to make a different final sub than they’d intended. Basically, they were fucked and Beacon Hills was most likely going to win.

Which left him with enough mental space to notice how the entire length of Brett’s thigh was now pressed against his own. Mason raised an eyebrow at Brett and flushed when he winked back. Liam hadn’t taken Mason’s ultimatum about asking Hayden out quietly, no he’d made it a condition that Mason had to ask someone out to the dance too.

Maybe he should just suck it up and ask Brett. He was sixteen years old, he was mature, he could handle the rejection.

“GOOOOOAAAALLLL!!!!” Both Brett and Liam leaped up and screamed as Taylor knocked one in with less than ten minutes to go.

But then again, the odds just might be in Mason’s favor of scoring a goal of his own…

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

When Liam strolled down the hallway, he passed by several buoyant girls from the team, their hair wet from the showers. They gave him curious looks but dismissed him as he went to lean against the wall next to the locker room. Shy from the attention, he hunched his shoulders a bit and shoved his hands into his jacket pockets.

In the bursts of conversations passing him by, he overheard that several of them were going to a party near the preserve. He wondered if Hayden would be joining them. He’d tried several times over the past few days to approach her and ask if she had a date to the Homecoming dance, but every time, he just chickened out. 

He’d kinda had a girlfriend in eighth  grade…but back then, that had meant walking to the mall on a collective date with their friends, holding hands, and trying to figure out how to do the whole kissing thing with an open mouth like older teenagers did in t.v. shows.  Maybe it was his and Hayden’s old history as rivals that intimidated him?

Liam smelled her shower gel before he saw her come through the locker room doors. She'd changed it, it was now cinnamon-scented, with hints of ginger. Her still-wet hair was pulled back into a lazy braid and he recognized one of her Sinema outfits, though she’d pulled on a long, loose cardigan over it.  When Hayden caught sight of him, she pulled up short and nervously tugged on her braid.

“Liam?” She glanced up and down the hallway. “You didn’t have to come down here.”

He shrugged it off. “I wanted to. That was an amazing game— _you_ were amazing.” Was he gushing? That definitely sounded like gushing.

 _Dial it down, Dunbar_ , he scolded himself.

Hayden beamed at the praise. “Thanks. I’m lucky the ref thought the head-butt was an accident.” _Why wouldn't he? That was hot_.

“Well, you did tell me at the start of the year that you were vengeful. I’m probably glad gum on my seat was the worst you did to m—oh wait, never mind.” He trailed off dryly. Hayden did that thing where she half-scoffed, half-laughed. Her eyes were bright.

“Okay, for your information, _Liam_ , my punching you in the face wasn’t revenge, it was because you scared the shit out of me.”

“Can’t really argue with that. But in my defense, I really did think that would work out in my favor.”

Together, they began to climb the stairs that would take them to the ground floor and towards the few exits still unlocked in the school at this hour.

“I overheard your teammates talking about a party near the preserve.  Are you going?” Ease into it with small talk, he told himself, willing his heartbeat to remain steady.

“I thought I might. Clarke kind of gave me the okay, but not before giving me the whole ‘I’m a cop and you know how to be mature about underage drinking, right?’ speech, so I thought I’d take advantage of that.”

“Nice.”

“I know! Do you wanna come? I figured I’d invite Mason and Brett if they were still around.” They reached the top of the stairs and Liam found himself pausing.

“Sure. I’ll have to text my mom to let her know I’ll be home a bit later than I said I would. I’m pretty sure Mason and Brett will be down for it—they said they’d pull the car up near the front and wait for me.”

“It’s a d—sounds like a good plan.”

Hope bloomed in his chest. “Since you’re inviting us to the party, I could return the favor and invite you to the next one.”

“The next one?” She echoed him.

“Yeah, Saturday night. It’s kind of a fancy dress thing, but you probably have something in your closet that’ll work.” He said casually.

 _Wow, that was actually smooth as fuck_ , he mentally patted himself on the back.

 

* * *

 

 

Hayden came to a complete stop right in front of the side entrance to the school.

“Did you just ask me to be your date to the Homecoming dance?”

Liam scratched the back of his neck, trying and failing to look casual as he met her incredulous stare. “Yeah?”

God, he was so cute.

She pressed her lips together so tightly to hide the wide grin threatening to break out on her face. “I could swing that.” She’d had plans to go to the dance with a few of her friends from the team, but they’d understand.

“Awesome.”

The whole situation suddenly struck her as absurd and Hayden snorted with laughter, then winced as a bolt of pain streaked through her face. “ _Ow_.”

She might have the accelerated healing of supernatural beings, but it wasn’t exactly instantaneous. Then a flash of motion moved in front of her face, startling her, but the gentle touch of Liam’s fingers on her nose both calmed and excited her. Hayden found herself brushing her fingers along Liam’s wrist as he lightly probed the still-bruised flesh.

“It’s healing, isn’t it?” He asked, barely audible. Their faces were inches away and Hayden craved the inevitability of the moment. There, in the dim hallway with only the outside lamp to illuminate the outlines of their bodies, she did nothing to push him away as the fingers on the side of her nose became a palm cupping her cheek. Her heart felt like it was going to pound its way out of her chest cavity.

“Yeah, it is. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt.” The anticipation pooled in her belly as she gazed into Liam’s pale blue eyes, half-lidded like he was caught in a spell. If she had to choose a word to describe how she felt in that moment, it would be _erotic_. This was the most grown-up she had ever felt. The thrill—

A burst of laughter interrupted the thick silence around them and both Hayden and Liam startled before staring back in the direction of the stairs. She hadn’t been the last one out of the locker room…and this was the nearest door, which meant they would soon be seen. Not that she had a problem with that, but it was ruining the moment.

“Come on,” she whispered, grabbing Liam’s hand and half-dragging him through the door, out into the cool night. The humidity hit her nose, along with the stench of dirty rain, and Hayden breathed deeply before sticking her hand out for the doorknob that led into the Driver’s Ed lab. The row of computer screens, with the glowing screensavers and the mock wheel consoles, beckoned them.

Liam closed the door behind him and Hayden turned to face him.  Almost in silent agreement, their fingers began to stroke each others’ and the sly tendrils of desire returned.

“I didn’t mean to just ignore you after Theo got us out.” She admitted. Summoning up whatever guts she had, Hayden reached up and brushed her palm against Liam’s jaw. The skin was still soft, but with the telltale roughness of puberty, the hint of bristles. Underneath her hand, he nodded.

“It’s alright. I figured you had a lot to deal with.” He told her, the burr of his voice tickling her ear.

_The last time Liam had kissed her, he’d taken her pain away; that hadn’t been their first kiss. That had been at age twelve, two kids constantly butting heads with each other as they tried to be the best. It’d practically been a dare, and Hayden hadn’t wanted to back down. She’d shoved Liam against the wall of their science classroom and practically headbutted him as she pressed her lips hard against his. There had been a fraction of a second where they’d realized what they were actually doing, where they had remembered their enmity, and where they had felt the currents of something different beneath it all…and when Hayden had backed away a scant two inches from Liam’s face, she had looked into his dazed eyes, and returned for a gentle, halting kiss._

Two weeks later, she’d had a broken nose, a broken heart, and that had been that. _Never again_! She had cried into her pillow, refusing to ever be stupid over a boy like that. Last Saturday, she had fantasized about Liam again, this time imagining them living together in college of all things, being domestic and utterly disgusting. And the fact that this particular fantasy had done the trick for her had Hayden staring at herself in the mirror the next morning, shaking her head and judging herself.

Hayden pressed her body along the line of his, and Liam reflexively curled his arms around the small of her back, stepping backwards until he was against the wall. Her hand left his and clutched at the muscle and bone of his shoulder. His hands dug into her spine, her hip, anchoring her completely in the present.

“My nose still hurts.” She murmured.

“Hm?”

Hayden smiled, millimeters from his lips. “Maybe you could make the pain go away again?”

The huff of breath against her lips as Liam chuckled took some of the intensity out of the moment, but not in a bad way. Hayden laughed with him and then their lips were closing against each others’. Their heavy breathing echoed in the silence of the room and that first, abrasive caress turned more gentle, more flowing as their faces turned, angling as they found their rhythm.

Both sets of hands slid over body, encouraging each other to press more tightly together than pages in a book. Hayden found that kissing was an immensely disorienting experience, but the solid presence of Liam’s arms around her kept her rooted. Then she slipped her tongue into his mouth and the rough pad brushed against his, making him moan softly. From that moment on, Hayden was gone.

 

[He did. Make the pain go away, that is.]

 

* * *

 

 

“I can’t believe you.”

“Oh come on, just because I haven’t seen _every_ _single t.v. show in creation_ —“

“This isn’t about every single t.v. show in creation, Talbot. This is Veronica Mars! My mom read Nancy Drew when she was little; I had Veronica Mars.” Mason’s voice pitched upwards near the end of the sentence and Brett held his hands up in surrender, conceding the non-argument.

“Okay, fine. What does Veronica Mars have to do with us sitting here in your car, spying on Liam and Hayden?” He asked.

Mason’s mouth gaped open for a moment before he found the thread of his old thoughts. “Not a whole lot, _but_ she used to sit in her car on stakeouts, taking pictures of dudes cheating on their wives and stuff, with only Backup for company.”

“She had to bring backup on a simple stakeout?”

“Backup was the name of her dog.” Mason explained. Brett raised his eyebrows at that.

“Are you comparing me to a dog?”

“ _No_.” Mason intoned, not entirely convincingly. “But if there’s trouble, you could definitely take care of it, couldn’t you?”

Brett didn’t answer the jibe, just shook his head and turned his attention to the world out his window as Mason returned to his ‘stakeout’. _Nerd_ , he thought fondly. Brett’s cheeks ached from all the smiling he’d done that night; he always seemed to smile and laugh a lot around Mason. He’d been wondering lately if maybe he’s ready to try the whole ‘dating’ thing rather than having a random hookup at Sinema. Dating meant intimacy, which Brett had long regarded as a risk to his beleaguered pack.

Mason Hewitt was already on the inside, though.

In the distance, the moon was low and half-full, casting a faint yellow tint on everything. Brett could hear Mason muttering lowly to himself as he stared at the obfuscated windows to the Driver's Ed classroom. Brett was no longer overly concerned with what Hayden and Liam were up to in there. He'd strongly suggested to her, over the phone, that she make a move...YOLO and all that...and he was encouraged by the way he'd just seen her nearly drag Liam into the darkened classroom. Either they got over themselves and made out, or he’d have to step up his efforts. One way or another, he was just going to sit here in the passenger seat of Mason’s car and enjoy the nighttime weather.

There was still some water rushing along the side of the street towards the drain and the parking lot was mostly deserted and nearly quiet save for the quiet murmur of conversation as the last stragglers from the game headed home. Breathing in deeply through the half-opened window, Brett could smell the faint scent of autumn smoke on the air. It was the little things that took him back: to the crunch of brown leaves under his mom’s tall boots as she strode purposefully through the woods with Brett dogging her heels, to the smell of wood shavings and the sound of the sander under his dad’s hands as he smoothed it into something beautiful.

It’s not that it hurts less to remember them; it’s just that it’s gotten easier to move past the pain. Certainly better to remember his parents the way they used to be…not the way they’d died. The first time he’d been happy, after the fire, he’d felt unbearably guilty for days afterward. It had been Satomi who had taken his chin in her hands and forced him to look up at her.

“ _You can’t live for the dead_.” She’d told him. “ _Nor can they live for you._ ” A useful bit of wisdom, just not one that was easy to accept.

“Hey.” A hand lightly gripping his shoulder and shaking him slightly drew him out of his reverie. Mason was watching him with a worried frown. “You okay?”

“Huh?”

Mason’s touch was comforting. He pointed in the direction of Brett’s face. “You were crying.”

He was right—Brett raised three fingers to his cheek and brushed away the moisture there. So he was. He managed a convincing smile for Mason’s benefit. “Not all of those were sad. Really.”

Honestly, he’s not sure Mason bought it, but he seemed to understand and accept the explanation. “Okay. Let me know if you ever need to talk, though.”

“I will.” And Brett meant it.

It took much longer than it should have for Mason’s hand to leave his shoulder. When he realized this, he gave an embarrassed jerk and lowered his hand to his lap. The thudding of his heartbeat told Brett just as much as the sudden awkward tension between them. Brett hid his grin behind the guise of scratching his nose.

“You see them anymore?” He asked, referring to their erstwhile friends.

“No. And nobody’s coming out of the school, either.”

“Sounds like they finally got over themselves and hooked up.”

Mason let out a long groan. “ _Fin-ah-lly_! I can’t say it hasn’t been entertaining, but Liam moping around was putting a serious crimp in my social life.” Maybe it was the reminder that plenty of other guys found Mason hot. Maybe it was the way he’d been so genuinely interested in the supernatural as well as Brett’s emotional well-being. Maybe it was how pretty his dark eyelashes looked against his skin.

“Hey. Did Veronica Mars ever abandon a stakeout to kiss werewolves in the back seat of her car?” Brett asked him.

“Veronica Mars?” Mason’s eyes flitted back and forth as he no-doubt scanned his brain. “No. But I totally would.”

Brett’s reflexes were quick, and he launched himself smoothly into the backseat, where he settled down and waited patiently for Mason to gingerly contort himself as he climbed over the arm-rest and tried to settle comfortably on top of Brett’s outstretched thighs. Brave, but shy. Hands curled around his neck, and Brett allowed himself to interlock his fingers around  Mason’s back.

He bit his lip, and Brett restrained himself from arching up to lick at the tiny wound. 

“Come to the dance with me on Saturday?” Mason asked him in a low murmur.

“Are you choosing me over all your other suitors, then?” Brett decided to be a bit saucy. Mason squirmed on top of him, shrugging.

“You’re cuter.”

“Well, in that case, _yes_.”

“Great, now can I kiss you?” Mason asked impatiently. Brett grinned up at him in the faint moonlight.

 

 

“Anytime you want to start is fine with m— _oomph_.”


End file.
